Altar Bell.

"The Benin altar bell, with its leopard motif and iron clapper, was not merely a musical instrument but a sacred voice—its sound invoked ancestral spirits during rituals. The leopard, symbolizing the Oba’s authority, transformed the bell into a ‘speaking object’ that mediated between the human and divine realms."

— Paula Girshick Ben-Amos, The Art of Benin (1995), p. 89.